That's not a weed... this is a weed!

Well, there's been quite a bit happening at the moment. 


Last Friday the gas meter and the floor boards were delivered for installation. 


We also had another (see the last post on this HERE) call from a company on M's behalf doing a 'survey' (ahem!) about our SS and satisfaction with the company and build. Same stupidly worded questions requesting a Yes or No answer.  Replies are unlikely to be Yes until we handover and are in a position to truelly assess all areas etc.  Given me a 1 to 5 if your really looking for any real feedback.  Generally the feedback was avg at this stage especially regarding the SS and his communication (or lack thereof!!!).


Called the CM for a chat today, who conveniently had just arrived at our place doing his checks - I suspect on his/our SS - and he confirmed the guys were laying the bamboo boards as we spoke. Not to be out done the carpet guys were there laying the carpet (ok probably didn't have to add that they were laying the carpet...they weren't going to be doing much else!) as were the renderers and brickies touching up a few things. Standing room only at our house today.

Boards waiting to be laid... Hopefully the carpet guys didn't need to get in the study before they laid the boards?

Remember this little old thing (previous blog posts, HERE, HERE & HERE...). Its been placed up against a brick wall... thankfully its the neighbours garage not our gorgeous façade!!!

We can't wait to inspect all this work later on this week.


While M has been arranging work to be done we have been busy arranging fence quotes and meeting with landscapers discussing our vision of the finished product. Met with two guys both similar ages (to each other and to me & with kids). Both were very informative and knowledgeable about what works with a couple of ankle biters. Now we need to pick one ???


We are also after some recommendations for concreters if anyone has a good one in the Inner E/SE Melbourne suburbs.


Oh and note to self - need to get some weed killer before the below really take hold - good soil at least....




Cam

Colour our world!

Well, in boring white undercoat that is!

Painters started on Friday and by the looks of these photos from the outside, they've been up to quite a lot since then.

Internal access door from garage taped and painting has started.

Front Door all taped and ready for painting.

Kitchen splash back window and cabinetry all protected :)

Stairwell window (3m high) and Monument Down pipe on the right...

New location of the gas meter (top left) vs old location (bottom right)!

Lookin' gooooood


Kirst

Slow going......

Progress on our build has slow dramatically over the past few weeks.  A small number of jobs here and there and that's about all.  What is getting done is as our SS has said – it’s just minor work.  Is it better than setting our expectations at an unrealistic level?? Probably...

I get the feeling our SS is doing his best.  Does that reflect the fact he has transferred in from the southern region to central in January and he hasn't built up the required rapport with the trades yet, issues with his scheduling or is it just M in general??

Our site meeting last week didn't resolve the three key issues - the insulation query, the gas meter location and the powder room sewer point.  All these items had been raised over two months ago now.  Very frustrating. We have now been told that plastering has been pushed back another week whilst the insulation issue is fixed. Its not like they haven't had enough time to get this fixed before now! I hope they dont try and pin this hold up on us...

Anyway, when you want something done, best to do it yourself.  Well, we are now aware of why the gas meter issue hasn't been resolved.  The excuse for the past month from M is the need to clarify the requirements for the location with Jemena.  By absolute fluke last Saturday night we found out that Kirst's friend's husband works at Jemena in the exact division which looks after new gas installations.... we found out that our site is not even within the Jemena system as a new install.  Not really surprising M is still waiting for a solution from Jemena.  M - you need to contact someone at Jemena, record the gas install requirement, tell them your query and they will probably action something for you..

Anyway, via our contact at Jemena – who signs off on the installs – we have our answers.  After mentioning this briefly to our SS I was basically told to 'stay out of it' and that he will resolve the issue once scaffold is down. Which really means it will happen in a another month, probably more…

Good to finish on a positive note – our tapware has now been fixed (3rd try) and the plaster can now commence this week.

Til next time

Things get moving!!!

This week heralded a new beginning for our new home construction. We got our new SS and things have started moving again post Christmas.

The brickies were back on site early in the week to do a little bit but given the scaffolding wasn't there, they couldn't really do all that much. The garage has been bricked and is awaiting its flat line roof and all the other pillars and nib walls that form part of our angular facade have also been completed.

The house is looking really good and I am sooo happy we waited for our bricks and the brickies have done a sensational job in making sure the colour blending is spot on!

The proposed gas meter will be smack bang in the bottom middle of the left hand wall! BOOOOOO!

Cam met our new SS Adrian on site yesterday and we are really pleased at how proactive he seems. He pointed out a number of things that he was getting fixed which we has not picked up on. He will address all of the issues from the independent inspection report and there was no issue in doing so. This is a vast improvement to the lip service/no action we had from our "acting SS/CM" prior to Christmas. He followed up on absolutely nothing that he said he would. He didn't even write his own site meeting notes, instead just forwarded on our notes. What gall!!!

Anyway, I digress...

They only outstanding issue that is yet to be resolved and had me a bit hot under the collar today was the placement of the gas meter. Apparently the only place that it can be located is smack bang in the middle of our front facade on the left hand wall. So much for paying an extra $25,000 to have the 'Nuvo' facade because it looks better and another $7,000 in rendering to achieve a certain look on our house only to have it all ruined by an ugly gas meter!!! You can probably tell I'm not impressed... I understand that there are only certain locations that these meters can go with regards to proximity to windows, electrical meters, taps and heaters but SERIOUSLY in the middle of the facade???

I mentioned this to our CSC this afternoon only to be told that there was nothing that could be done. I asked where on our contract is the location stipulated (it isn't!) and also asked where the meter is put when other people build the Nelson in Nuvo facade (apparently it goes next to the garage?). Surely this is a design flaw if there is nowhere to put an essential utility meter?

Is anyone else having/Did anyone else have this problem when they built and what are the possible solutions? Cam will be contacting our SS again tomorrow to see what other options he has come up with...

Okay, now that's off my chest... I drove by today and it was lovely to see something has actually changed as the SS said it would. We have scaffolding! Hooray. That means that the brickies finish the job finally!

The schedule for the next few weeks to get to lock up is....

Friday

Scaffolding finished

Upstairs to be wrapped (hopefully in something of a decent quality this time!)

Monday-Friday (not incl. Aust Day)

Brickies to finish the sides, 

Chippies to come back and fix internals, externals including balcony and the dodgy portico framing, and start the cladding upstairs.

Plaster delivery

We are looking forward to seeing some action :)

Kirsten